Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Chinese scientists an unusual latitude to define for themselves the mean-
ings and values attached to “traditional” and “modern,” “indigenous” and
“foreign.”
58
in both countries, seismologists melded aspects of folk knowl-
edge (such as the predictive use of animals) with approaches legitimated by
the international scientific community.
in one of Milne's earliest studies of stone-age tools, he proposed an un-
usual marker of civilization: “it would seem that the number of relics of
a barbarous age in any civilized country, will, amongst other conditions,
very largely depend upon the number of years which separate that age from
its present civilized condition.”
59
Anthropology was thus the counterpoint
to Milne's seismology: it allowed him to measure Japan's proximity to the
“barbarous,” even as he used seismology to secure the nation's status as
“civilized.” Milne began to speculate on the cultural effects of earthquakes
in 1879, in an anonymous article for the english-language
Japan Gazette:
“Why should we not study the connection between earthquakes and the
human species? Why do earthquakes produce feelings of nausea and sick-
ness. . . . is it an effect upon the nerves or what is it,—nature? further,
might we not enter upon a broader question and consider what general
effects have been produced upon the inhabitants of an earthquake country.
What was the action of the last earthquake upon us? . . . Living under such
conditions we might perhaps grow reckless; and drinking, gambling and
other vices might consequently be a characteristic of the residents in Japan.
Perhaps imbecility might become prevalent.” At this time, the only author-
ity to cite on this topic was Buckle. Yet Milne's anonymous speculations
differed from Buckle's in one key way: he used the collective first person. it
was unclear whether his “we” was limited to the english-speaking readers of
the
Gazette,
or whether it included the native Japanese.
60
Many of the anecdotes Milne gathered from Japanese historical sources
found their way into his 1887 address to the Seismological Society of Japan
on “earthquake effects, emotional and Moral.” Like Buckle, Milne argued
that capitalism required a natural environment predictable enough to make
investment in the future a rational act. Seismicity instead raised the specter
of a “continually approaching and receding death.” in earthquake-prone
countries, people became “careless of the morrow,” “passions have been
unbridled and refuge has been sought in mirth and gaiety”; in the place of
commerce and science, people turned to gambling and to “arts conducive
to pleasure.” Milne expressed confidence that “the successful or serious na-
tions of the present day, characterized by their enterprise and commerce,
are not those whose misfortune it has been to fight against unintelligible
terrorisms of nature. Not only may seismic forces have stimulated the
